In hierdie versamelbundel is daar ‘n groep uiteenlopende mense gevra om elk ‘n onafhanklike essay te skryf na aanleiding van ‘n Bybelteks.

Daar is skrywers, ekonome, musikante, akademici en joernaliste. Die enigste voorwaardes was dat dit persone moet wees wat nie meer kerklik betrokke en/ of ‘n dominee of teoloog is nie. Baie essays is bloot verhale, vertellings, reise of verduidelikings wat met ‘n teks verbind kan word.

Ons almal is medereisigers in hierdie verbygaande wêreldse bestel. Kom ons luister met ‘n oop gemoed na mekaar. Dán staan ons ‘n kans om te verstaan, te begryp, eerder as om te oordeel.

Van die bekende en bekroonde skrywers wat deelneem aan hierdie projek is onder andere Jurie van den Heever, Annelie Botes, Dana Snyman, Pik Botha, Heinz Modler, Lizette Rabe, Dawie Roodt, Rachelle Greeff, Piet Croukamp, Joan Hambidge, Koos Kombuis, Karin Brynard, Jean Oosthuizen, Christine Barkhuizen Le Roux, Lina Spies, Valda Jansen, Valiant Swart, Nathan Trantraal, Churchil Naude, Riku Lätti en Luke Alfred.

Buckle up for a tour of South Africa – your guide the inimitable Sihle Khumalo.

Born in South Africa, and having lived here for almost fifty years, Khumalo reflects on the past and ponders the future of this captivating yet complex country. He delves into the history of the names given to our towns and cities (from Graaff-Reinet to Schweizer-Reneke to Zastron) and in the process raises issues we might not have interrogated fully.

This is a thought-provoking account by a South African who asks uncomfortable questions and forces his compatriots to contemplate what the future of this country (or cowntry) might hold. Why ‘cowntry’, Sihle? Consider the shady characters who’ve been milking this piece of land for centuries. And the fact that some politicians mispronounce the word ‘country’. But who knows? Maybe it is not mispronunciation – perhaps they’re giving us a message: the people in power are milking this country and it’s all just a game…

When it comes to making great decisions, the way you think about things is usually a lot more influential than what you actually think.

If you ever hired a person who ‘looks the part’, dated someone who ‘gives you a good feeling’, voted for the party that ‘speaks the most sense’ or got into an investment that ‘cannot be missed’, only to realise you made a horrible mistake, you might have wondered how you ever talked yourself into it. Yet, even with the bruises you’ve earned, you’re currently likely to make exactly the same decision, the next time around.

The beliefs that guide your ideas and the instincts that drive your actions, are all informed by your unconscious biases (and literally every single one of us has them), which irrationally tell us one thing is good, and another is bad; one thing is absolutely true and another is utterly false; and make you act less smartly than you actually are. But the good news is you can learn to see them, to manage them and ultimately to overcome them.

In Don’t Believe Everything You Think, Colin J Browne, the author of How to Build a Happy Sandpit, shows you how biases work, why they matter, and how to reframe your thinking to make well-founded decisions about life and work, relationships and investing, and much else in between, to vastly improve your chances of success.

Building a healthy lifestyle can be daunting, especially with the level of confusion that exists about health and wellness. As low-carb high-fat diets have increased in popularity, a wealth of information has proliferated on the internet and in print media. The problem is knowing what works, and differentiating between sound advice and opportunistic entrepreneurs whose primary aim is to monetize ‘solutions’.

In 2017, Hendrik Marais founded Keto Lifestyle South Africa with the aim of providing the information needed to build a healthy, sustainable lifestyle based on the ketogenic diet and intermittent fasting. He believes that while nutrition is important, a healthy lifestyle must find the right balance between sleep, stress management, exercise and nutrition. By making keto accessible and approachable, Marais has inspired thousands of people to adopt simple, healthy eating habits and stick to them.

Living the Ultimate Keto Lifestyle incorporates a comprehensive introduction that sets out his principles and practices for following a keto diet, and explains how to achieve your weight-loss goals. This is followed by a selection of delicious, healthy recipes, as well as sample meal plans and ideas for effortless entertaining.

Locard’s Exchange Principle underpins all forensic science and holds that the perpetrator of a crime will bring something to the crime scene and leave with something from it.

Forensic experts use this principle daily to catch murderers and assailants. In Risking Life for Death, South African forensic pathologist Ryan Blumenthal offers a master class in this singular forensic technique based on real-life case studies. With more than twenty years’ experience in the field, Blumenthal explains how to look for clues and traces, and how what he does not find at autopsy is often more important than what he does find. In other words, the absence of evidence can sometimes be of greater value than the presence of evidence.

His account also highlights the dangers forensic pathologists are exposed to daily. As they try to unravel the puzzle of someone’s death, forensic pathologists often face life-threatening infections, toxic gases and the hazards associated with high-profile cases – in effect, risking their life to solve someone else’s death.

An understanding of Locard’s Exchange Principle can help you become a medical detective in your own life, can help you be a happier person and can even provide you with a better philosophy for growing older, Blumenthal argues.

Hierdie keur bevat drie lekkerlees liefdesverhale deur Christine le Roux: ’n Wêreld sonder hom​, ’n Kwessie van tegniek en Bewys van liefde.

Feeling an exile in the country of his birth, the talented journalist and leading black intellectual Bloke Modisane left South Africa in 1959. It was shortly after the apartheid government had bulldozed Sophiatown, the township of his childhood. His biting indictment of apartheid, Blame Me on History, was published in 1963 – and banned shortly afterwards.

Modisane offers a harrowing account of the degradation and oppression faced daily by black South Africans. His penetrating observations and insightful commentary paint a vivid picture of what it meant to be black in apartheid South Africa. At the same time, his evocative writing transports the reader back to a time when Sophiatown still teemed with life.

This 60th-anniversary edition of Modisane’s autobiography serves as an example of passionate resistance to the scourge of racial discrimination in our country, and is a reminder not to forget our recent past.

A fanciful fable in which the young heir apparent of the Greyfur kingdom of Aloes-Redding – an idyllic place of the far edge of the polluted and desecrated human territory of Blasterland – must find his true name and ascend the throne.

Kita loves walking on the dusty red road. Mama tells Kita not to make red dust clouds. Mama says if the red dust cloud grows, it will become a Dust Eater. Dust Eaters swallow little girls in one big bite. Kita doesn’t think that story is true. Mama just doesn’t want her to get her pretty dress all dirty with the red dust.

One afternoon, Kita learns what Mama is talking about.

Kita has a Dance with the Dust.

The SA Décor and Design Buyers Guide is celebrating its 25th anniversary of showcasing the industry with a rather stylish return in the printed version that has made it such a household name as the go-to resource for décor, design and interior sector professionals and for lovers of all things chic.

Due to popular demand from the industry, the new printed version of the Buyers Guide has launched and it has been an absolute labour of love, says Marcia Margolius, well-known designer and decorator and author of the award-winning blog, “Marcia loves it”, on the SA Décor and Design website. “With our new look Buyer’s Guide, we have transformed the way buyers connect with the finest suppliers and service providers in the industry”.

“This guide goes beyond highlighting suppliers; it’s a celebration of the talent and creativity that comes to life behind the scenes. Readers can immerse themselves in captivating projects and brands through vibrant full-colour photographs that showcase true artistry and craftmanship”.

The result is a spectacular and comprehensive 504-page tome, a feast for the eyes with full page spreads, showcasing the crème de la crème of highend suppliers and retailers. The new user-friendly system of icons allows the reader to quickly identify the products available along with a convenient QR code for scanning to connect directly with suppliers.

A riveting, kaleidoscopic account of nine tumultuous days, as the assassination of Nelson Mandela’s protégé by a white supremacist threatens to derail South Africa’s democratic transition and plunge the nation into civil war.

Johannesburg, Easter weekend, 1993. Nelson Mandela has been free for three years and is in power sharing talks with President FW de Klerk when a white supremacist shoots the Black leader’s popular young heir apparent, Chris Hani, in hopes of igniting an all-out war. Will he succeed in plunging South Africa into chaos, safeguarding apartheid for perhaps years to come?

In The Plot to Save South Africa, acclaimed South African journalist Justice Malala recounts the gripping story of the next nine days, as the government and Mandela’s ANC seek desperately to restore the peace and root out just how far up into the country’s leadership the far-right plot goes. Told from the points of view of over a dozen characters on all sides of the conflict, Malala offers an illuminating look at successful leadership in action and a terrifying reminder of just how close a country we think of today as a model for racial reconciliation came to civil war.

The Poisoners is a history of four devastating chapters in the making of the region, seen through the disturbing use of toxins and accusations of poisoning circulated by soldiers, spies, and politicians in Zimbabwe and South Africa.

Imraan Coovadia’s fascinating new book exposes the secret use of poisons and diseases in the Rhodesian bush war and independent Zimbabwe, and the apparent connection to the 2001 anthrax attacks in the United States; the enquiry into the chemical and biological warfare programme in South Africa known as Project Coast, discovered through the arrest and failed prosecution of Dr Wouter Basson; the use of toxic compounds such as Virodene to treat patients at the height of the Aids epidemic in South Africa, and the insistence of the government that proven therapies like Nevirapine, which could have saved hundreds of thousands of lives, were in fact poisons; and the history of poisoning and accusations of poisoning in the modern history of the African National Congress, from its guerrilla camps in Angola to Jacob Zuma’s suggestion that his fourth wife collaborated with a foreign intelligence agency to have him murdered.

But The Poisoners is not merely a book of history. It is also a meditation, by a most perceptive commentator, on the meaning of race, on the unhappy history of black and white in southern Africa, and on the nature of good and evil.

Een van Deon Meyer se mees geliefde boeke is nou ook te sien as die TV-reeks Devil’s Peak.

“My naam is Bennie Griessel en ek is ’n alkoholis.”

Om sy lewe terug te kry, moet speurder-inspekteur Bennie Griessel eers vir Artemis keer: die vigilante wat die doodstraf teruggebring het, wat besig is om misdaad teen kinders met ’n lang lem en ’n skrikwekkende meedoënloosheid te wreek.En met die media wat skree, die politici wat druk toepas, ’n span onbeholpe jong speurders en verskeie kollegas wat hom in die rug steek, stel Bennie Griessel ’n lokval.

Maar hy het nie rekening gehou met die liefde van ’n sekswerker vir haar kind, die haat van die Sangrenegra-dwelmkartel en sy eie smagting na die helende kragte van die bottel nie.

My First Brain Boost Board Games offers 20 brain boosting board games combined with kinesiology (learning through movement) that will empower a child with skills development such as hightened concentration, logic, and memory.

The board games are complimented by a manual with 20 short stories combined with instructions for body movements. Board games have been proven excellent for brain training and reconditioning.

The brain games in this set have a range of benefits, including:

• Improving attention, analytical thinking, body balance, handwriting, brain activity, learning and reading speed;
• Developing tactic (touch) and vestibular senses (listening), logical thinking, mathematics, memory, writing, organisation and phonological skills;
• Strengthening neck-, upper chest- and shoulder muscles;
• Excercising hand-eye and hand-foot coordination, middle-line crossing, and coordinating lateral movement;
• Activating creativity;
• Aiding in ADD, ADHD, dyslexia.

From the bestselling authors of Saving the Last Rhinos comes a new vivid account of environmental conservation and the ongoing efforts to conserve and restore Africa's iconic wildlife and its wildernesses on a war-ravaged continent.

Conservationist Grant Fowlds lives to save and protect Africa's rhinos, elephants and other iconic wildlife, to preserve their habitats, to increase their range and bring back the animals where they have been decimated by decades of war as in countries like Angola, Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

This vivid account shares the desperate conservationist efforts to save, preserve and restore Africa’s wildlife, and the tragic losses that sometimes happen along the way. Fowlds describes heart-pumping face-offs with poachers and how impoverished rural people are exploited by rapacious local businessmen. He also highlights the world-threatening illicit trade in ivory and endangered wildlife, some if it sold in ‘wet markets’.

Rewilding Africa goes to the heart of the impact of the Covid-19 on conservation efforts, it describes the importance of wildlife tourism that sustains rural communities; and tells of conservationists' passioned endeavours to support people through the crisis.

Fowlds and Spence take readers on a journey across some of the richest habitats in Africa, teaching the importance of conservation, and the vitalness the survival of wildlife has on humanity’s existence and that of the planet.

“Boere chic” – the judges' description of the food style of Nicky, winner of the 2012 Top Ten Home Cooks competition.

This book offers a collection of delectable recipes in Nicky’s own individual style; producing scrumptious food ideal for entertaining but also perfect for the family.

Each dish, from the truly traditional to delightfully modern, displays Nicky’s special touch, surprising ingredients and distinctive presentation, all of which contribute to keeping the book fresh and enticing. The recipes have been well and truly tested; they are served to family and friends for their opinion and, time after time, pass the test with flying colours.

Magnificent colour photographs of nearly every dish will inspire readers to immediately try the recipes for themselves. And interspersed between the recipes are photographs of the farm in Pongola, where the writer lives, that tell more about that beautiful area and make the reader feel like an extra-special guest. Everything – from appetisers to divine desserts – is absolutely delicious, and all the old favourites are there; sometimes with a bit of a twist.

“I’m a very level-headed person,” Melanie Verwoerd told the gynaecological oncologist. “However, I feel like my dogs during a thunderstorm. I’m desperately trying to find somewhere to hide, but everywhere I go, it is still there.”

A week earlier, another gynaecologist had paused mid-sentence during a routine ultrasound examination. Something big was wrong. Blood tests showed elevated tumour markers and scans revealed a huge ovarian tumour with at least a 70% chance of being cancerous. A few days later a radical hysterectomy was performed. As the terror grew, the only way for her to make sense of what was happening was to write. This book is the brutally honest reflection of the year that followed the operation.

The physical recovery was painful, messy and took much longer than expected. However, even more surprising was the deeper, soul-searching questions that the procedure brought to the fore. The physical crisis triggered an intense journey of self-reflection and discovery. It required courageous investigations of the darkest corners of her psyche and forced her to face many of the fears that had comfortably lived there for decades. It also threw a spotlight on the relationship she – and many women – have with their bodies, sex, money as well as the role of intergenerational trauma. In the process, Melanie also had to come to terms with the rage, pain and grief of the hysterectomy specifically and many other losses in general, whilst investigating what she wanted to do with the second part of her life.

Although this book was triggered by a hysterectomy, it is not intended just for those who have had or are going to have a similar experience. It is also meant for every woman who comes to a crossroad and has to reassess her life.

And although it is brutally honest, it is also hope giving, and insists that women’s voices be heard.

Tonele en rolspelers uit die Anglo-Boereoorlog kry nuwe lewe in hierdie unieke versameling foto’s wat lewensgetrou ingekleur is. Dit bring vars perspektief op een van die belangrikste historiese gebeurtenisse in die Suid-Afrikaanse geskiedenis.

In die Anglo-Boereoorlog of Suid-Afrikaanse Oorlog het die twee Boererepublieke van Transvaal en die Oranje-Vrystaat teen die Britse Ryk te staan gekom. Hierdie verwoestende oorlog sou vir dekades lank nog ’n uitwerking hê op die Suid-Afrikaanse politieke, ekonomiese en sosiale landskap.

Lesers sal talle ikoniese foto’s in Die AngloBoereoorlog in kleur raaksien, maar ook verskeie wat nog nooit tevore gepubliseer is nie. Honderde boeke het die afgelope 120 jaar oor die oorlog verskyn, maar dit is die eerste een in volkleur.

A revolution is taking place in the great marketplaces of the informal sector and it contains an unquantified scale and power as an economic engine and a way of life for the majority of our low income populations. The KasiNomic Revolution may still be a murmur in the streets, a grassroots economic groundswell, but it is the future of African economic activity.

Kasi is the South African term for the township – a teeming conurbation of homes and businesses, entertainment venues and social meeting places. GG Alcock uses the term KasiNomics to describe the informal sectors of Africa, whether they are in the township, a rural marketplace, at a taxi rank or on a pavement in the shadow of skyscrapers. Brought up in a rural Zulu community, GG has learnt and shares the lessons of African culture, language, stick fighting, lifestyle and tribal politics, along with shared poverty and community, which have prepared him for accessing the great informal marketplaces of Africa. He is uniquely placed to uncover the extraordinary stories of kasi businesses which not only survive but excel, revealing a revolutionary entrepreneurship which is mostly invisible to the formal sector.

KasiNomic Revolution is a story of kasi entrepreneurs on one side and, on the other, of great corporate successes and failures in the informal community. KasiNomic Revolution is at once a business book, and at the same time a deeply human book about the people and lives of rural and urban informal societies.

KasiNomic Revolution is about the lessons of marketing, distribution, culture and modernity in an informal African world.

A difficult manager can be the cause of many a sleepless night, or in extreme cases, even make you want to quit your job. Impossible bosses can obstruct your professional growth by hiding corporate ladders and leave your career stuck in an invisible cage.

In this book, eight archetypal managers who create uniquely challenging situations at work are identified, including Mr Tumbleweed (the anxious and indecisive manager), Ms Say Me (the competitive control freak manager), Mr Make-Up (the people-pleasing manager), Ms When We (the hostage-of-the-past manager) and four other friends.

Drawing on real-life experiences, the authors describe typical workplace scenarios you might find yourself in with these impossible bosses and identify their key character traits. Most importantly, they share several secret strategies for how best to communicate your ideas and demonstrate your value to them. Working with different psychological profiling systems, the authors try to demystify the personality type and explain why your impossible boss acts like they do.

Armed with these insights and hands-on tips, you will be able to turn challenging interactions around in a shorter space of time and respond with an approach that will show your true value and leadership qualities.

A coach in your pocket, this book offers a practical guide for how to manage your manager.

In 2022 Elon Musk - one of the richest and best-known people on earth - made headlines worldwide with his bid to buy Twitter, and he is often in the news for his entrepreneurial exploits and his controversial tweets. Who is this boundary-pushing billionaire with grand plans of inhabiting Mars, and what lies at the heart of his vision? Why is he so utterly unafraid of risk?

As an awkward Pretoria schoolboy who loved comics and science fiction, Musk's early years and singular family background were crucial in forming his stellar ambitions. Journalist and author Michael Vlismas, who attended the same high school as Musk, knows well the environment that shaped him and offers new insights into Musk's development, including his troubled relationship with his father.

Tracing his remarkable life, from his South African childhood to his move to Canada at 17 and then to the US - where Musk made millions out of PayPal and built Tesla and SpaceX into two of the world's most famous companies - this is the revealing new story of a man driven to preserve the optimism he sees in humanity and find a future for humans 'out there among the stars'.

Khulu Radebe had had a full life. Then, at the age of 50, he discovered that he was a king.

As a teenager, Khulu Radebe was part of the Alexandra Township 1976 uprisings. Arrested and sent to Robben Island, he was one of the youngest prisoners there. Returning to Alex, he participated in the township’s 1986 Six Days War. Radebe joined the armed struggle, repeatedly dodging death from the enemy and from fellow MK soldiers in Angola.

At age 50, and proving a prophet’s prediction correct, Khulu Radebe learned about his royal roots. He was informed that he was the ruler of the AmaHlubi people of the Embo Nation, a nation that stretches along the east coast of Africa.

In chronicling his extraordinary life and times in this landmark autobiography, Radebe, in a humane and vivid way, chronicles too the revolutionary path for freedom in South Africa. Alexandra Township in Johannesburg is a central character in this book and Radebe reveals an astonishing story of the post-1990 war between Inkatha and the ANC in Alex.

Gripping, bold and original, Comrade King, is an unforgettable story.

A dozen years in the making, The Inheritors weaves together the stories of three ordinary South Africans over five tumultuous decades in a sweeping and exquisite look at what really happens when a country resolves to end white supremacy.

Dipuo grew up on the south side of a mine dump that segregated Johannesburg’s black townships from the white-only city. Some nights, she hiked to the top. To a South African teenager in the 1980s—even an anti-apartheid activist like Dipuo—the divide that separated her from the glittering lights on the other side appeared eternal. But in 1994, the world’s last explicit racial segregationist regime collapsed to make way for something unprecedented.

With penetrating psychological insight, intimate reporting, and bewitching prose, The Inheritors tells the story of a country in the throes of a great reckoning. Through the lives of Dipuo, her daughter Malaika, and Christo—one of the last white South Africans drafted to fight for the apartheid regime—award-winning journalist Eve Fairbanks probes what happens when people once locked into certain kinds of power relations find their status shifting. Observing subtle truths about race and power that extend well beyond national borders, she explores questions that preoccupy so many of us today: How can we let go of our pasts, as individuals and as countries? How should historical debts be paid? And how can a person live an honorable life in a society that—for better or worse—they no longer recognize?

Khamr: The Makings Of A Waterslams is a true story that maps the author’s experience of living with an alcoholic father and the direct conflict of having to perform a Muslim life that taught him that nearly everything he called home was forbidden.

A detailed account from his childhood to early adulthood, Jamil F. Khan lays bare the experience of living in a so-called middle-class Coloured home in a neighbourhood called Bernadino Heights in Kraaifontein, a suburb to the north of Cape Town. His memories are overwhelmed by the constant discord that was created by the chaos and dysfunction of his alcoholic home and a co-dependent relationship with his mother, while trying to manage the daily routine of his parents keeping up appearances and him maintaining scholastic excellence.

Khan’s memories are clear and detailed, which in turn is complemented by his scholarly thinking and analysis of those memories. He interrogates the intersections of Islam, Colouredness and the hypocrisy of respectability as well as the effect perceived class status has on these social realities in simple yet incisive language, giving the reader more than just a memoir of pain and suffering.

Khan says about his debut book: "This is not a story for the romanticisation of pain and perseverance, although it tells of overcoming many difficulties. It is a critique of secret violence in faith communities and families, and the hypocrisy that has damaged so many people still looking for a place and way to voice their trauma. This is a critique of the value placed on ritual and culture at the expense of human life and well-being, and the far-reaching consequences of systems of oppression dressed up as tradition."

We all know South Africa has problems; we read about them in the newspapers, we see them on the streets and many people experience them in their daily lives. Fortunately, many of these problems can be solved using innovation and science. Innovation takes a look at inventions - developed in South Africa by South Africans - to address issues in the areas of healthcare, energy, environment and industry. Some of these inventions, such as a tea bag created to filter water for communities in rural areas, can save lives; others, such as a unique way to beneficiate titanium, could spell a new era of industry in the country.

The book is broken down into sections on environment, health, energy, industry and education, and in each of those parts are examples of South African innovations, from a satellite system to map fires to the concept of sterilising mosquitoes to stop the spread of malaria.

These have been developed by numerous organisations and institutions and showcase South Africa's excellence.